Create the Major Incident

Start by building the session’s Major Incident. This could be part

of a larger multi-session incident, or it could be just for the one-off
session. Whatever the case, use what you discovered about Mouse
Park and the characters during your initial session to determine what
the primary danger is. This should tie directly into something about
the characters, an attraction the player’s built, or something to do
with the characteristics of Mouse Park they’ve determined. So, you
see that you can’t really plan ahead much—or if you do, you need to
be flexible about what the details are.
When choosing the primary danger, look over the danger types.
What would cause the most amount of drama for the characters? What
would make sense given who the characters are and what the players
decided they wanted in the game? Is it a monster (Weird Danger)? Is
it a restaurant chef that has snapped and is cooking guests (Mousineer
Danger)? Is it a tourist that is trying to throw himself off Galaxy
Mountain (Guest Danger)? Is it the New Moon and so Mouse Park is
spontaneously creating fatal malfunctions (Mouse Park Danger)? Has
Halloween roused the spirits of all those that perished at Mouse Park
(Big Picture Danger)?
Once you choose the danger, outline the incident.

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS:

Once upon a time, there was ________________ (who or what is
the danger), who/what was _____________ (where is the danger),
and wanted ____________ (what does the danger want), because
___________ (why does the danger want that).

One day, _____________ (what changed or incited the danger into

action), and because of that, ________________ (what does the danger
do), until finally ________________ (what will happen if the danger
gets what it wants).

You have just defined a “clock” for the danger—or, in other words,
charted out the countdown the danger will undergo throughout the
session until the player characters start affecting the story.

1. Introduction: Where the danger starts.

2. Exposition: The danger identifies the goal.
3. Conflict: Something gets in the way of the danger and the goal.
4. Rising Action: The danger moves toward the goal.
5. Climax: The danger confronts what gets in the way of the goal.
6. Resolution: The danger does or does not achieve its goal.
WEIRD DANGER EXAMPLE
Once upon a time, there was a demon that possessed a young
princess actress, who was working in the Princess Castle at Mouse
Park, and wanted to eat small children alive because it lives on terror
and fear. One day, the authorities at Mouse Park stopped allowing
the princess to meet kids in her chamber at the castle, and because of
that the princess went into the park and started grabbing and eating
children openly to satiate her hunger, until finally the authorities shot
her and erased the memories of all the guests that witnessed the event.

1. Introduction: The princess is waiting and locked in the castle.

2. Exposition: The princess breaks out of the castle to hunt children.
3. Conflict: The authorities chase the princess down while she eats
the children.
4. Rising Action: The princess confronts the Mouse Park authorities.
5. Resolution: The Mouse Park authorities shoot the princess and
erase the memories of the witnesses with the Mouse Park
pineapple juice.
MOUSINEER DANGER EXAMPLE
Once upon a time, there was a popcorn cart Mousineer, who was
always stationed at the entrance of Mouse Park, and wanted to sell
more popcorn than his rival on the other side of the street because he
always got the bonus $20 gift card for popcorn sales. One day, the
Mousineer saw an opportunity to sabotage his rival when he suddenly
had to leave his cart unattended, and because of that, he poisoned his
rival’s popcorn, until finally it was discovered that the popcorn had
been poisoned and the Mousineer was reprimanded and cast into the
abyss as a sacrifice to the Great Mouse.

1. Introduction: The popcorn guy is at the entrance of Mouse Park.

2. Exposition: He sees the rival’s cart unattended, and so poisons
the popcorn.
3. Conflict: People begin getting sick and dying while he sells his
non-poisoned popcorn.
4. Rising Action: Park authorities shut down popcorn sales and
take care of the bodies.
5. Climax: He blames his rival for poisoning guests.
6. Resolution: The authorities find out the ruse and sacrifice the
Mousineer.
MANAGEMENT DANGER EXAMPLE
Once upon a time, there was an Attraction Manager in charge of
Wilderness Mountain and he wanted to have a problem-free day,
because he is on his final write-up of accidents at the attraction. One

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day, a guest is beheaded during the roller coaster ride, and because of
that he hides the corpse to cover it up and erases the memories of the
other passengers, until finally the corpse falls out of the attraction’s
hiding place in front of everyone and his boss.

1. Introduction: The manager oversees the ride and does a

safety check.
2. Exposition: The guest is killed on the ride.
3. Conflict: The manager decides to cover it up.
4. Rising Action: The manager hides the guest and erases the
memories of the other people.
5. Climax: The body falls from its hiding place in the middle of the
line and in front of upper management.
6. Resolution: The manager is promoted for his ingenuity.

GUEST DANGER EXAMPLE

Once upon a time, there was a teenager, who was on Swiss Mountain
and wanted to get a selfie with the Yeti for social media, because he
thought it would be cool. One day, he climbed up the mountain while
the ride was going and took a picture, and because of that, the live
yeti that was on the loose found someone he could eat and chased the
teenager, until finally the teenager was eaten by the Yeti.

1. Introduction: The teenager goes to Swiss Mountain.

2. Exposition: The teenager climbs the mountain and looks for
the yeti.
3. Conflict: The Yeti is alive.
4. Rising Action: The Yeti chases the teenager as the ride is going
around them.
5. Climax: The Yeti traps the teenager.
6. Resolution: The Yeti eats the teenager.
MOUSE PARK DANGER EXAMPLE
Once upon a time, there was an insatiable ancient god who lived
beneath Mouse Park, who wanted human sacrifices, because only
blood spilled on the soil could keep his hunger at bay. One day, the
idiots in charge of Mouse Park failed to give him a sacrifice, and
because of that he rose from his slumber and crashed through Mouse
Park destroying all that he saw, until finally they sacrificed the Mouse
Park president as an apology and the god went back to sleep.

1. Introduction: The sacrifice fails to happen.

2. Exposition: The god wakes up and wonders what the hell is
going on.
3. Conflict: The god crawls from the abyss destroying the park in
his path.
 4. Rising Action: The god destroys the park around him demanding
recompense, but they are too frightened to do anything about
it.
5. Climax: The president of the park is sacrificed publicly.
6. Resolution: The god is appeased and returns to the Abyss.

BIG PICTURE DANGER EXAMPLE

Once upon a time, there was a lunar eclipse that was coming over
Mouse Park and wanted to fill the park with psychosis and insanity,
because a curse on Mouse Park is activated under a lunar eclipse. One
day, the lunar eclipse occurred, and because of that most people in the
park became bloodthirsty, ravenous, and bestial, until finally the lunar
eclipse ended and everyone came back to their senses.

1. Introduction: The lunar eclipse begins.

2. Exposition: The people in Mouse Park go psychotic.
3. Conflict: Those that go psychotic begin killing each other.
4. Rising Action: The effect of psychosis spreads, except for those
that find sanctuary inside attractions.
5. Climax: The psychotics break through attractions to kill the
sane people.
6. Resolution: The psychosis passes as the lunar eclipse ends.

Create the Minor Incident(s)

Now that you defined the Major Incident, complicate it by
introducing Minor Incident(s). Think of other dangers that are
associated with the danger in the Major Incident, but with a different
“clock.” You can come up with as many of these as you like, but note
that the more complex your overall incident is, the longer it will take
to play out.
Minor Incidents can be set into motion as a result of the Major
Incident, or perhaps they are simply running parallel and by existing
are complicating the Major Incident. Your Minor Incident should not
be a part of your Major Incident’s description and should operate
independently, even if they do affect one another. The idea here is not
necessarily to create subplots, although Minor Incidents can do that,
but to create more levels and texture to the overall narrative—and
ultimately to escalate the conflict and raise the stakes.

Building Minor Incidents are a little less involved than Major

Incidents, but follow a similar structure:

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 Meanwhile, _______________ (who or what is the danger)
was _________________________ (what is the danger doing),
because ____________ (why is the danger doing that), until finally
_______________ (what will happen if the danger continues doing it).

1. Rising Action: The danger moves toward the goal.

2. Climax: The danger confronts what gets in the way of the goal.
3. Resolution: The danger does or does not achieve its goal.

It’s smaller than the Major Incident and is so by design. Since

Minor Incidents are not the focus of the narrative, it will complicate
things too much to develop them as widely as Major Incidents. This is
essentially a vector in the story that has a beginning, a direction, and
an end that will occur if nothing prevents it.

GUEST MINOR INCIDENT

Meanwhile, a guest was running recklessly into a roller coaster
attraction in full operation, because he was trying to get his young
daughter away from the princess, until finally a runaway roller coaster
car crushes them both.

1. Rising Action: The guest tries to escape with his young daughter.
2. Climax: The guest and his daughter are in danger of getting hit
by a roller coaster.
3. Resolution: The guest and daughter get crushed by the
rollercoaster.
WEIRD MINOR INCIDENT
Meanwhile, the guests who were poisoned were mindlessly and
violently attacking other guests, because the poison has made them
insane, until finally security hauls them off and executes them.
1. Rising Action: The poisoned guests turn into zombies.
2. Climax: The zombies attack other guests.
3. Resolution: The Mousineers take the zombies away and
kill them.
BIG PICTURE MINOR INCIDENT
Meanwhile, a freak winter blizzard was descending upon the park,
because the Great Mouse fell too deeply into His sleep, until finally
the deep sleep passed and the storm subsided.
1. Rising Action: It begins to snow.
2. Climax: A horrible blizzard descends.
3. Resolution: The blizzard suddenly stops.
MOUSINEER MINOR INCIDENT
Meanwhile, a disgruntled Mousineer was at the Swiss Mountain
attraction and shut down the cameras, because he was sick of working,
until finally is forced by management to turn it back on.
1. Rising Action: The Mousineer shuts down the attraction.
2. Climax: The Mousineer abandons the attraction.
3. Resolution: The Mousineer is forced to return and turn the
attraction back on.
MANAGEMENT MINOR INCIDENT
Meanwhile, the president of Mouse Park was trapped inside an
attraction, because he was looking for the perfect person to sacrifice
and chased a kid until he sprained his ankle and fell into the track of
a ride, until finally the ride is activated and crushes him.
1. Rising Action: The president looks for the sacrifice.
2. Climax: He gets trapped in a ride.
3. Resolution: The ride crushes him.
MOUSE PARK MINOR INCIDENT
Meanwhile, the park power grid completely fails, because of an
unknown malfunction, until finally a maintenance employee fixes it.
1. Rising Action: The power suddenly goes off.
2. Climax: No one can enter or leave the park and there is no light
or electricity.
3. Resolution: The power is restored.

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 Create the Dangers
Once you’ve identified the major and minor incidents, it’s time
to specify what the specific traits and qualities of the dangers are.
Some dangers are more abstract or environmental and so will require
nothing more than Narrator Moves or simple narration. However,
other more tangible dangers such as guests, monsters, or any NPC
may have unique traits that can make things more difficult on the
player characters.
You will need to go through your incidents and call out NPCs,
monsters, or other dangers that will directly interact with the player
characters and then choose their traits and their merchandise.
DANGER TRAITS
If your danger is a person, start by choosing a personality (starting
on page 57). Beyond that, your danger may have other special qualities
that could impact Narrator Moves. NPCs and monsters may have
special moves, deal harm or shock, withstand harm or shock, carry
merchandise, or have weaknesses.

SPECIAL MOVES
You can create any special move you want, but following are a
list of ideas that you may see in Mouse Park. You’ll also find in the
Incident File section (p. 131) several unique NPCs and monsters
with their own unique special moves. When thinking of moves and
creating them, think about how their moves are, in fact, special. They
should be something that defines them and that most other creatures
are unable to do.

Following are some thought-starters:

• Be exceptionally good with a
particular weapon
• Breathe under water
• Come alive
• Control someone’s mind
• Disguise yourself or someone
else
• Fly
• Force people to sing and dance
• Go to another realm
• Make a curse
• Make a magical attack
• Make a ward
• Make animals talk
• Make inanimate things alive
• Never die
• Poison
• Steal someone’s voice
• Swing dramatically from high
places
• Throw a strong punch
• Turn someone into a creature
• Turn someone into something
• Turn yourself into a creature
• Use claws
• Use pointy fangs
• Use brute strength
HARM AND SHOCK
Next, you’ll need to decide the following about your danger:
• Harm Capacity: how much harm can they take?
• Shock Capacity: how much shock can they take?
• Harm or Shock Dealt: How much harm do they do when they
cause harm? Remember that characters can only take 3 harm or
shock before they are out of play.
• Wards: Do they have natural wards to protect them from shock?
Can they create a ward?
• Armor: Do they have armor to protect them from harm? Can they
create armor, or crate magical effects that act like armor?

ATTACKS AND WEAKNESSES

Next, you’ll need to decide what the danger does when in a fight
with player characters, or in short, what their attack is. Do they use
a special move, or do they use a weapon, their fists? Talons? Are
they using merchandise (refer to Armor, Wards, and Merchandise on
page 30) to help with their attacks or defense? Describe what harm
or shock the attack does and how it affects a character when used.
Conversely, describe any weaknesses the danger may have that the
characters can exploit.

Create the Setting

You will already have attractions that the players made which you
should include in the incident. Below are tags to help guide your
thinking on the overall feel of the setting. If you need more, you can
use the “Custom Mouse Park” rules on page 38.
CHOOSE UP TO 3 TAGS FOR EACH SETTING:
Adorable Dark Old-fashioned
Ancient Deep Prickly
Bewildering Elegant Quaint
Big Empty Rainy
Boring Fancy Rotten
Breezy Fantastic Round
Bright Flat Shallow
Broad Fluffy Salty
Charming Hollow Skinny
Chilly Hot Sparkling
Cold Littered Sparse
Colorful Little Square
Colossal Loud Steep
Creepy Low Straight
Crowded Magnificent Ugly
Cuddly Miniature Wet
Damaged Narrow Wide

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 Starting the Incident
An incident is the framework for a gaming session. It is the
background, setting, and cast of characters that the players will be
interacting with. While incidents have a start and finish, they are not
necessarily defined ahead of time. They may define what will happen
if players do nothing, but they do not determine what players do.
That’s up to the players.
When kicking off an incident, it is important to lay out all of the
groundwork the players will need in order to take actions. You should
build the set, explain the opening situation, and present hooks with
which the players interact. You should have also already identified
which dangers will likely be lurking there on this occasion, what they
want, and their timeframe for getting what they want—but leave that
for players to discover through the session.
Incidents can open any number of ways, but think of all the things
a character would notice or know. What time of day is it? What’s
the weather like? What are the crowds like today? Are there special
events and activities happening? Who are the primary NPCs, what are
they doing, where are they, and what’s their mood? What details can
you bring up to suggest a mood or evoke a tone?

• You can choose to open in media res: “As you walk onto Main
Street, you see Swiss Mountain suddenly burst into flames as a
crowd of guests pour away in panic. What do you do?”

• You can open passively: “It’s a warm cloudless day, the crowds
are thick but not overwhelming and you have been assigned to
work on Swiss Mountain. What is it you’re doing there today?”

• You can openly assertively: “As soon as you clock in to work,

your supervisor Andy stomps up to you and says that if you
don’t get to Swiss Mountain in three minutes you’ll be written
up for being late. What do you do?”

• You can simply open with a question: “What’s the day like today
and what are you up to?”

However you open, you should take this time to introduce the
players to potential dangers and set the tone for what the session will
entail. Following that, your job is simply to react to what they do.
You may find trouble getting the story rolling once you’ve kicked
off your incident. It could be because players are not quite used to
the game or are acclimating to their characters, or it simply could be
because the players haven’t latched onto any hooks or ideas you’ve
thrown out. In this game, the best way to progress is to ask questions.
Questions can be about the setting, particularly if it is an area of
Mouse Park that the players created (e.g. So you know about Bear
Paw Pass tell us what’s going on there today), however it’s good to ask
questions about the player characters. Questions can be as leading or
as vague as you like (e.g. Did you sleep well last night? Or, What do
you expect to do be doing today?) Whatever question you choose,
listen carefully to the response, because the player is giving you hooks
that he or she is interested in, and those hooks can be used to bring
them into the incident.

USING INCIDENTS
Incidents are a tool to help structure the game play in The Happiest
Apocalypse on Earth. While they can be run literally, by the text, and
in a very structured way, they can also serve as a source of inspiration
to take the session wherever it may go. They are not designed to
dictate plot to the players. To the contrary, they are designed to deliver
a scenario from which the players can create the story. Each incident
assumes a certain course of events if player characters do not interfere
or interact. It is up to the players to divert the story based upon what
has happened in the set-up. Therefore, the incidents provided here are
not gospel, but rather fuel for your efforts as a Narrator.
If you are making a truly collaborative experience, you will need
to use the character generation and park generation mechanics to
set up a scenario everyone wants to play. Now, this may or may not
coincide with an incident. However, if you have a bunch of them in
your quiver, you'll be able to quickly conjure up conflicts, dangers,
and motivations and adapt them to your particular scenario.
Remember that your goal is to create a horror story with a cast
of characters, not to dictate a pre-programmed session onto players.
The incidents in this book are a starting point to inspire ideas for
whatever scenario you may end up stumbling into. They also provide
mechanical options to choose from: including monsters and NPCs
with special powers and motivations.
You can also use the format for your own pre-made incidents.
There is no limit to possibilities, time, place, or situations. I hope you
enjoy these as a source of morbid glee before you jump into a session.

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